Luiz: I am from Curitiba, a city in the south part of Brazil. I graduated from a music-sound production course, but by the end of it, I was feeling hungry for more knowledge in the field of audio technology and the psycho-physics of audio perception. Japan seemed to be the right place to study it. So I did my masters and am now doing my PhD at Tokyo University of the Arts, in the field of audio and video interaction in the perception of audio.

SDA: Tell us about the production of your competition entry. How long did you work on it? Was it your first entry? Stories? Inspirations?

Luiz: There is a regular concert at my university, were very good students play a concert with the University professional orchestra. The quality of the musicians is very impressive. If you just heard it, you would never imagine that this huge violin sound came from a Japanese girl about 20 year old. I recorded one of these concerts, and it was the first time I used suspended microphones. I was trying to create a sound that gives you a more immersive feeling than a regular surround recording were a orchestra is in the front and the hall reverberation in the back, however without loosing the traditional orchestra panoramic sound.

SDA: What initiated your passion for audio?

Luiz: It was when I went to a studio for the first time. I was 10 and went for a try out of a jingle were they needed a kid singing. I didn't passed the test, but seeing a mixer console with a million buttons and a tape deck rolling fascinated me. Just like the control panel of a spaceship.

SDA: How did the AES help you on your way of being a successful audio engineer?

Luiz: The AES papers are more than half of my university reading materials. I also believe that an AES convention is worth six months of university classes. There is no other way I could learn so much in so little time about audio.

SDA: What are your highlights of the AES133 in San Francisco?

Luiz: I liked very much the lecture from Poppy Crum "Noise on the Brain—Hearing Damage on the Other Side: Part II" about the ground breaking researches of the chemical process in the inner ear, and how it could help to prevent hearing loss in the future. I also liked very much the panel "New Multichannel Formats for 3-d Cinema and Home Theater", were there was in the same room all probable standards of the "audio of the future".

SDA: What was your funniest experience as an engineer so far?

Luiz: I think it was when I went traveling the whole country of Brazil (from the amazon to deep south) doing the sound from a documentary and getting to know some of the best Brazilian musicians.

SDA: Can you tell us your biggest mistake you made during a production?

Luiz: I think It was during the first time I recorded a live concert for a documentary movie. I used a CD recorder and a DAT tape as the backup. However the DAT signal was coming from the line out of the cd recorder, and when I changed the discs, there was no signal going to the DAT. So, I lost about a minute of music. Good thing they decided not to use that song in the documentary.

SDA: What is the best recording of all time?

Luiz: I don't think I can select a single recording and say it is the best. It depend very much in genre, style and what are the objectives. That being said, most of Pink Floyd albums still give me goosebumps.

SDA: Do you play any instruments?

Luiz: I play classic guitar since I was four. Also, I played drums in a rock band when I was a teenager.

SDA: Any other hobbies?

Luiz: I like to play with photography.

SDA: Where do you want to be in 10 years?

Luiz: I would like to be working is something involve both audio and video, developing new techniques that help to create a better entertainment content.